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The Haunted World of Mario Bava
Mario Bava was the seminal Italian Gothic Fantasy stylist. A former painter, Bava extended his eye for beauty in composition to forge breathtaking symphonies of colour and light in a series of masterful horror classics. His influence extends beyond such acknowledged cinematic disciples as Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci, to a new generation of admirers including the likes of Tim Burton, Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese.
352 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2003
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November 19, 2025an oversized coffee table book, except who's coffee table would something like this sit on? my coffee table! genre wizard Mario Bava is one of my favorite directors. I'm taking my time with this one, reading a chapter after I watch the film that chapter is showcasing. The Haunted World is evenly divided between film synopsis, film review, and a very generous amount of film stills and posters.
I'm really enjoying how the reviews are so in-depth and well-researched. in addition to a detailed synopsis, each film's chapter has a thoughtful overview of that film's style and themes, their relation to other films, how audiences reacted, and descriptions of alternate versions. Howarth also has actual opinions about each of the films, while still worshipping at the Bava altar.
🖤
Black Sunday (1960)
Bava's first classic, a stunningly shot gothic fairy tale. starring Barbara Steele, one of the most unusual of cinema's scream queens, effortlessly able to convey either otherworldly innocence or decadent evil - in this film, her double role allows her to do both. the cinematography and the set design are both entrancing - this is a press pause and marvel at the tableau on display type of film. despite often being corny or crude, with acting that ranges from indifferent to histrionic (save for Barbara Steele), the film is always completely compelling, entirely due to Steele's unique appeal and Bava's hypnotic direction.
The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963)
recut as The Evil Eye by American producers so that the film leaned into its light comedy elements and excised all references to marijuana (lol). this remains an enjoyable, well-directed thriller, which shows off several striking areas of Rome (in particular Mussolini's tribute to masculinity, Stadio dei Marmi) and features two wonderfully eerie scenes: our heroine's exploration of a bare, overly-lit apartment flooded with the sound of a sinister recording, and her attempt to construct a trap for a thief by turning her apartment into a bizarre spiderweb. intense Valentina Cortese is a great foil for the bland protagonists.
Blood and Black Lace (1964)
the film that brought giallo to popular attention. (one of my favorite genres.) this is pure style - which is saying something because Bava is always a stylish director - and on top of that, is actually set in a fashion house. I love the color coding for each of the murder victims and how the color of their outfits are reflected in the lighting and decor in each of their scenes. the camerawork is so smooth and elegant; the camera just glides. Bava adds some nicely theatrical flourishes at times, as if the viewer were watching a play. plus a suave bossa nova score and some nifty title credits. caveat: too much sadism for my tastes in one of the murders. still, an all-time favorite.
Planet of the Vampires (1965)
the planet where our protagonists crash land is given its eerie atmosphere almost entirely via colored gels and smoke, billowing plastic sheets used as burial shrouds, and a desolate landscape with occasional dancing lights. the uniforms the crew all wear have a strangely bdsm/Nazi look. it's fun to watch the scene of the cast exploring an abandoned spaceship, complete with giant fossilized pilot, and see how completely stolen it was by Alien. neat twist ending. another one of my favorite films.
Kill, Baby, Kill (1966)
doltish title aside, this film is a beauty. pleasing to the eye: the terrorized village is a dreamy whirl of fog, cobblestones, arches, firelit cottages, blackened landscapes, the night; the crumbling palace beside it is crowded with cobwebs and dust, passages that go in circles, once lavish furnishings now rotting - much like the demented baroness who lives there. and pleasing to the mind: the inversion of representations of good & evil: the brave heroine - a witch clad in black; the supernatural threat - a dead little girl with golden locks, clad in white (and played by a little boy). the film is a study of fear: every living character is locked in terror, or eventually succumbs to it. a hypnotic and hallucinatory classic.
Twitch of the Death Nerve AKA Bay of Blood (1971)
a precursor to the Friday the 13th films, with its gruesome slasher-style kills in a bucolic setting. this is a clever, cynical, mordantly funny, frequently surprising film. it's one murder after another, but in this case it is multiple murderers. as is often said, it is like La Ronde except with a string of deaths and matched murderers instead of a string of love affairs and matched lovers. except for the inevitable carload of sex-crazed teens (not long for this world), most of the cast is either a murderer or an accomplice to murder. including a couple of children! I think there are like 8 killers running around (often literally running).
Baron Blood (1972)
one of Bava's worst films and so of course it was one of his most financially successful. an offensively shrieky Elke Sommer spends most of her time acting moronic, while her partner in idiocy insists on summoning the spirit of his murderous ancestor - "for science" lol. Joseph Cotton is at least having a marvelous time as the possible newly incarnated gentlemen from the past, intent on redecorating his castle in the old style and perhaps up to his old interests as well. this was sorta fun but mainly foolish.
Lisa and the Devil (1974)
Baron Blood's financial success meant that Bava was finally given a budget worth his talents, and so he made this, his strangest film of all. is Lisa alive, dead, or stranded in purgatory? she moves from modern Italy into a stranger place in the past, a palatial estate where she becomes simultaneously entangled in both a deadly love triangle and a deadly love... square? as well as a romance of her own. plus lots of mannequins (a Bava hallmark) and a smug Telly Savalas, hamming it up as an obsequious servant who also happens to be Satan. this is Bava's most opulent and dreamlike film. a unique experience. the scene where a sleeping Lisa is ravished on a bed next to what may be her own skeleton was wild. sadly, the film was so confusing to its producers that they recut it for American audiences, adding a bunch of exorcism scenes that had nothing to do with the story itself and retitling it "House of Exorcism." (gladly, I haven't seen that version.)
I'm really enjoying how the reviews are so in-depth and well-researched. in addition to a detailed synopsis, each film's chapter has a thoughtful overview of that film's style and themes, their relation to other films, how audiences reacted, and descriptions of alternate versions. Howarth also has actual opinions about each of the films, while still worshipping at the Bava altar.
🖤
Black Sunday (1960)
Bava's first classic, a stunningly shot gothic fairy tale. starring Barbara Steele, one of the most unusual of cinema's scream queens, effortlessly able to convey either otherworldly innocence or decadent evil - in this film, her double role allows her to do both. the cinematography and the set design are both entrancing - this is a press pause and marvel at the tableau on display type of film. despite often being corny or crude, with acting that ranges from indifferent to histrionic (save for Barbara Steele), the film is always completely compelling, entirely due to Steele's unique appeal and Bava's hypnotic direction.
The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963)
recut as The Evil Eye by American producers so that the film leaned into its light comedy elements and excised all references to marijuana (lol). this remains an enjoyable, well-directed thriller, which shows off several striking areas of Rome (in particular Mussolini's tribute to masculinity, Stadio dei Marmi) and features two wonderfully eerie scenes: our heroine's exploration of a bare, overly-lit apartment flooded with the sound of a sinister recording, and her attempt to construct a trap for a thief by turning her apartment into a bizarre spiderweb. intense Valentina Cortese is a great foil for the bland protagonists.
Blood and Black Lace (1964)
the film that brought giallo to popular attention. (one of my favorite genres.) this is pure style - which is saying something because Bava is always a stylish director - and on top of that, is actually set in a fashion house. I love the color coding for each of the murder victims and how the color of their outfits are reflected in the lighting and decor in each of their scenes. the camerawork is so smooth and elegant; the camera just glides. Bava adds some nicely theatrical flourishes at times, as if the viewer were watching a play. plus a suave bossa nova score and some nifty title credits. caveat: too much sadism for my tastes in one of the murders. still, an all-time favorite.
Planet of the Vampires (1965)
the planet where our protagonists crash land is given its eerie atmosphere almost entirely via colored gels and smoke, billowing plastic sheets used as burial shrouds, and a desolate landscape with occasional dancing lights. the uniforms the crew all wear have a strangely bdsm/Nazi look. it's fun to watch the scene of the cast exploring an abandoned spaceship, complete with giant fossilized pilot, and see how completely stolen it was by Alien. neat twist ending. another one of my favorite films.
Kill, Baby, Kill (1966)
doltish title aside, this film is a beauty. pleasing to the eye: the terrorized village is a dreamy whirl of fog, cobblestones, arches, firelit cottages, blackened landscapes, the night; the crumbling palace beside it is crowded with cobwebs and dust, passages that go in circles, once lavish furnishings now rotting - much like the demented baroness who lives there. and pleasing to the mind: the inversion of representations of good & evil: the brave heroine - a witch clad in black; the supernatural threat - a dead little girl with golden locks, clad in white (and played by a little boy). the film is a study of fear: every living character is locked in terror, or eventually succumbs to it. a hypnotic and hallucinatory classic.
Twitch of the Death Nerve AKA Bay of Blood (1971)
a precursor to the Friday the 13th films, with its gruesome slasher-style kills in a bucolic setting. this is a clever, cynical, mordantly funny, frequently surprising film. it's one murder after another, but in this case it is multiple murderers. as is often said, it is like La Ronde except with a string of deaths and matched murderers instead of a string of love affairs and matched lovers. except for the inevitable carload of sex-crazed teens (not long for this world), most of the cast is either a murderer or an accomplice to murder. including a couple of children! I think there are like 8 killers running around (often literally running).
Baron Blood (1972)
one of Bava's worst films and so of course it was one of his most financially successful. an offensively shrieky Elke Sommer spends most of her time acting moronic, while her partner in idiocy insists on summoning the spirit of his murderous ancestor - "for science" lol. Joseph Cotton is at least having a marvelous time as the possible newly incarnated gentlemen from the past, intent on redecorating his castle in the old style and perhaps up to his old interests as well. this was sorta fun but mainly foolish.
Lisa and the Devil (1974)
Baron Blood's financial success meant that Bava was finally given a budget worth his talents, and so he made this, his strangest film of all. is Lisa alive, dead, or stranded in purgatory? she moves from modern Italy into a stranger place in the past, a palatial estate where she becomes simultaneously entangled in both a deadly love triangle and a deadly love... square? as well as a romance of her own. plus lots of mannequins (a Bava hallmark) and a smug Telly Savalas, hamming it up as an obsequious servant who also happens to be Satan. this is Bava's most opulent and dreamlike film. a unique experience. the scene where a sleeping Lisa is ravished on a bed next to what may be her own skeleton was wild. sadly, the film was so confusing to its producers that they recut it for American audiences, adding a bunch of exorcism scenes that had nothing to do with the story itself and retitling it "House of Exorcism." (gladly, I haven't seen that version.)
December 17, 2021
A book that fails at just about every level, Haunted World does show some promise in its introduction. But the wheels soon come off. The writing throughout is constipated. The author meanders from one topic to another even within a sentence. And the main body of the book amounts to nothing more than an annotated filmography with lengthy plot summaries that rely on a string of adjectives. It was a chore to finish it, although I'm glad I did. Because towards the end, it does have a good interview with Barbara Steele. Alas the interviews with Bava himself that are reproduced are horrible: Bava clearly had a rehearsed routine for giving interviews and the ones contained in this book simply have him repeat himself over and over and over.
September 26, 2014
A great all around primer on this great director. Informative and opinionated ... a suitable intro for those not familiar with his work, but with enough info to be a great read for those who know him well. A really nice selection of colour photographs too. Well worth a look.
November 1, 2025
What an incredible book and a great time travel back into the last century: Star Crash, Argento, his beginnings, great movie posters, then broad focus on his films, Black Sunday, Evil Eye, Four Times That Night, Twitch of the Death Nerve, The House of Exorcism, Beyond the Door, Blood and Black Lace. Besides you'll have great photos of Carmen Silva and Nadia Cassini... wow, what a compendium on horror's golden time. You'll never forget those movie stills and posters. Highly recommended!
March 16, 2018
This is a good read on Bava and his films. I learned some fun stuff about his movies I didn't know before (such as how he shot "Kill, Baby...Kill" in just 12 days) and I discovered some films I didn't realize he'd directed (such as two spaghetti westerns and "Knives of the Avenger"). The interviews with Bava and some of his friends are also fun.
August 13, 2012
Definitely the BEST book on Bava so far. Great photos! Howarth did a spectacular job!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews